Gold Coast Titans spring an ambush in Wests Tigers' lair

Phil Gould

Big win: The Titans stunned the Tigers on their home turf. Photo: Getty Images

When the Gold Coast Titans arrived at Leichhardt Oval yesterday afternoon there would have been plenty of things going through their minds.

The team was down on strength with several of their regular players missing. The heavy round two loss - 42-12 to the West Tigers - would have been vivid in their memory. They knew only too well how difficult the Tigers are to beat at this venue; and this point was never better emphasised only a fortnight ago when the Tigers completely ambushed the Manly Sea Eagles and delivered them a heavy defeat.

The conditions were cold, wet and windy. In this arena, under these conditions and with the home crowd so close to action cheering on their team this was obviously going to be a very physical affair.

When the going gets tough, you need to get tough with it. That is exactly what the Titans did in the early exchanges of this match.

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The visitors set the standard for toughness and physicality. They also shocked the Tigers with their preparedness to move the ball quickly to the edges of the field and their willingness to unload the ball in tackles despite the greasy conditions.

The Tigers may have been anticipating a safety first approach from the Gold Coast boys, and were certainly taken aback by the swiftness of their ball movement and the footwork of their faster players.

The home side appeared to be on the back foot right from the jump, which was in the stark contrast to the way they blew Manly away in the early stages of that match only a fortnight ago.

Terrific dummy-half surges from hooker Beau Falloon, combined with the sharp darts from playmakers Albert Kelly and Aidan Sezer really troubled the Tigers' big men around the middle of the field.

Out on the edges, the Titans had selected an unusual combination with big Dave Taylor and Brad Takairangi playing as centres. Both these giants are more suited to play in the forwards and in the middle of the action. However, they created havoc out wide with their size and unloading ability.

Taylor was particularly impressive. He topped the run count for his team on the day, and every charge was felt by the opposing defenders. He combined his natural power game with some wonderfully skilful touches. His test was always going to be in defence where he was marking up on the smaller and much faster Tim Simona, but he never missed a beat. Taylor's defence was nothing short of outstanding.

Adding to their injury worries leading into the match, the Titans were dealt a cruel blow midway through the first half when playmaker Albert Kelly left the field with a suspected fractured leg. Up to this point Kelly had been brilliant and causing the West Tigers defenders no end of trouble.

The score was 8-0 in favour of the Titans at the time of his departure, and it seemed they might find it difficult to win without his direction.

In fact, statistics tell us that on the last 11 occasions an NRL team has lost their halfback before half-time, only two of these teams went on to victory. This was just another hurdle for the Gold Coast side to leap.

Into the game to replace Kelly came young dynamo interchange player Paul Carter. This kid has something special about him.

As I watched the game unfold, I couldn't really decide what position he was playing. He spent some time at dummy-half. He hit the ball up like a front-rower. He ran on the edges like a back-rower. He directed the play like a playmaker. He charges the ball forward with great intent, and resents any tackle. He has the ability to pass the ball before the line and position teammates inside or out. Carter also has an uncanny ability to unload in tackles even though he may be held by as many as three or four defenders. This lad is fast gaining a reputation as one of the best impact players coming off the interchange bench in this competition.

I could continue to praise each individual in the Titan’s side for their contribution to this success. They had many great players on the day. Suffice to say though this was a wonderful effort. Holding the flamboyant West Tigers to only one try in 80 minutes of football at Leichhardt Oval is no mean feat. The Titans defence was fast moving, physical and resilient. They met the Tigers on the advantage line all day, restricting their go-forward. They hustled and bustled the talented West Tigers playmakers all afternoon. On the few occasions their front line of defence was breached they scrambled well with great cover defence from their speedy outside men.

In fairness to the West Tigers, they too had several key players missing from their line-p, however, it just wasn't their day. They were certainly stunned by the ferocity of the Titans' opening gambit and never really recovered.

They were probably guilty of playing sideways far too often in their attacking formations, and were comfortably contained by the Gold Coast defence.

There is so much like about the potential of this Tigers team with so many fine young players now aboard. The loss on Sunday is just a part of the NRL learning cycle. They would have been brimming with confidence coming into the match. There is a big difference between confidence and complacency though. You soon learn that in the NRL, there is no game that can't be won, and there is certainly no game that can't be lost. If you are not mentally prepared and at your best every week, then chances are your opposition will be. I still like this Tigers side and feel that the lesson learntyesterday could prove valuable getting down towards the back end of the season.

On the day though, all honours went to the Gold Coast Titans. They were aggressive on the ball all afternoon, and every 50-50 possession seemed to go their way, simply because they forced the issue.

After eight rounds of the competition they are still equal leaders of the competition, and showing no signs of wilting.

It's a great position to be in as we enter the representative season.

3 comments so far

The officials set the tone for this match, when in the set of six leading up to the Titans first try, there were no less than 4 separate infringements which were not penalised.

The Tigers showed some heart after halftime, but any hopes of a second half fightback were demolished when the referee's brought their boots down on the Tigers' throats again.

Disgusting game of football, yet unless it's a glamour team like Parramatta or Manly suffering, we don't hear boo from the media.

Commenter

Direct

Date and time

April 28, 2014, 8:23AM

I'm not sure refereeing killed the Tiges. Bird,Myles,Harrison, the Origin players, stood up , Titan's forwards more than matched opponents. Parramatta kept playing Tigers back into the game previous week and it looked like Farah wasn't missed. He was probably missed this week.

Commenter

BJ

Date and time

April 28, 2014, 7:48PM

Spoken like a true Sydney rugby league fan. I thought the game was at Parramatta at first with the amount of consistent booing from the Tiger's fans trying to get penalties. Which were rewarded by the way. A good game of footy with a clearly better team on the day. Your comment is the definition of 'one-eyed' and with so many games actually decided by suspect calls. When the final score is 22-6 it's pretty unrealistic to blame the refs.